December 16, 2021 3:30 a.m.
Nonfarm payroll employment in Oregon rose by 10,000 in November, following a revised gain of 6,400 jobs in October.
A release from the Oregon Employment Department said the largest gains were in leisure and hospitality with gains of 4,100 jobs, construction added 1,800 jobs, professional and business services went up by 1,600 jobs, and retail trade which gained 1,100 jobs. These gains were partially offset by a loss of 1,100 jobs in health care and social assistance.
OED said several industries added enough jobs to reach all-times highs. Construction employed 113,800 in November, which was 500 jobs above its prior record reached in February 2020 during the peak of Oregon’s prior economic expansion. Similarly, wholesale trade, which added 400 jobs in November, reached 77,400, enough to boost it to a record high for the first time since February 2020. Professional and business services rose to 257,500 jobs in November, which was 100 jobs above its pre-COVID record.
OED said leisure and hospitality added 4,100 jobs in November, following a gain of 3,600 in October. Despite these gains, that category still accounts for a large share of Oregon’s jobs not recovered since early 2020, with 25,400 jobs left to recover to reach the prior peak month of February 2020. The industry has regained 77 percent of jobs lost early in the pandemic.
Education and health services was at 16,000 jobs, or 5 percent below its pre-recession peak. Within this broad industry, nursing and residential care facilities was 6,900 jobs below its pre-recession peak, while the private educational services category was down 3,900. Employment in hospitals was down 2,700 jobs, and ambulatory health care services was down 1,200.
Oregon’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 percent in November, down from 4.4 percent in October. The U.S. employment rate was also 4.2 percent in November. OED said the state’s unemployment rate has declined rapidly over the past six months, as it was close to 6 percent through the first half of the year. Oregon’s unemployment rate is now close to the state’s historically low unemployment rates which averaged 3.9 percent during 2017 through 2019. Those were the three calendar years at the end of the prior economic expansion.